Today ISED Minister François-Philippe Champagne made official what we knew was coming which was that MDA will “design, manufacture, test, and deliver robotics interfaces” so that the Canadarm3 can operate on the NASA led Lunar Gateway.
This announcement deals specifically with the Lunar Gateway External Robotics Interfaces. The first RFI for GERI was issued in January 2019. Today’s announcement did not announce the contract but rather the intent to award MDA the contract.
In a press released ISED Minister François-Philippe Champagne said, “Our government continues to support the development of advanced robotics tailored to a new chapter of lunar exploration. Canada’s significant contribution to the Lunar Gateway promises to spark innovative opportunities and important economic benefits for the country’s space sector.”
The Canadian Space Agency describes the scope of the work as follows:
The Gateway External Robotics Interfaces are fixtures that will be installed on Lunar Gateway modules and on visiting vehicles for future deep-space missions. They will allow Canadarm3 to anchor itself and move around the Gateway, and to retrieve payloads delivered on logistics vehicles and reposition them on the station. The interfaces will also supply power and data connections to the robotic elements and any attached payloads.
President Biden’s administration has put forward a budget that retains the goal of landing astronauts on the Moon by 2024. In discussing the goal at budget press briefing on May 28, 2021, and as reported by Space Policy Online, “NASA Administrator Bill Nelson acknowledged the challenges in meeting such an ambitious schedule for the Artemis program, but insisted that remains the goal.”
Canada’s contribution of the Canadarm3 would come after an initial human return to the surface of the Moon and is currently scheduled for launch and activation in 2026. However, the Gateway External Robotics Interfaces will need to be delivered before the scheduled launch of the first elements of Lunar Gateway. Those elements are the combined Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) being manufactured by Maxar, and the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) being manufactured by Northrop Grumman. The Gateway External Robotics Interfaces need to be attached to the HALO. These first two elements are now part of the Co-Manifested Vehicle which is scheduled to launch in May 2024 on a SpaceX Falcon 9.
Learn more: HALO – The Lunar Gateway’s habitation and logistics element.